Draper is doing a nice job on PG spot for Croatia (photo by FIBA.com)
The day after torching Montenegro for 26 points Ante Tomic was again phenomenal. He scored 23 points in 26 minutes vs Bosnia and Herzegovina on variety of hook shots and post-up moves.
However Tomic was THE ONLY bright spot on Croatian NT (2-2) which posted a relatively unexpected 80:92 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina, team which has lost by as much as 28 points from Finland(!).
Croatia shot only 4-24 (17%!!!) from downtown. PF Damir Markota was 0-7 in that department. With Croatian NT playing without offensive flow many of the shots came off-balance.
Both Markota and Rudez were totally unable to defend F Mirza Teletovic, especially in the post-up situations. Bosnian international lit up Croatia with 26 points and 9 rebounds.
Croatian NT head coach didn’t detected Teletovic as a potential problem prior or throughout the game and thus failed to install and kind of help or zone defense!
Also, despite Saturday’s CroHoops.com advice Vrankovic again decided to use his “smallball” line-up featuring Dontaye Draper (8 points, 6 boards, 9 assists, 4 steals) and Marko Popovic.
It is now clear as a bell that Draper has won the starting job on this Croatian NT for keeps and Popovic should settle for the back-up point guard, not shooting guard role!
Anything else should be considered as giving up size to any opponent which is a basic mistake coach Vrankovic is repeatedly making while obviously not being aware that this games are played at the top international level and the stakes are really high!
On Monday, Croatia will face 3-1 Greek NT in the battle for the quarterfinal stage.
